1863 Civil War Telegram Between Two Confederate Generals Discusses Defending Against Grant’s Campaign Towards Vicksburg

(CIVIL WAR – VICKSBURG). ADS. 1 pg. 8” x 2”. April 26, 1863. Columbus, Mis. A document signed “S.J. Gholson Maj Genl” to “Brig Genl Ruggles”: “I have none at present save for Col Smith’s Command and am trying to collect others”. This is a telegraphic copy (written in the hand of a telegraph operator) of a message sent by Samuel J. Gholson to General Daniel Ruggles concerning troop placement during Union General Ulysses Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. As part of his plan to allow for a Mississippi River crossing south of Vicksburg, Grant deployed two diversionary measures. They were an attack to the north of Vicksburg by General William Tecumseh Sherman and a two-week cavalry raid throughout the state by Bejamin Grierson, to which this telegram is in response. General Sherman would later call Grierson’s raid “the most brilliant expedition of the war” because of how successfully it diverted the attention of Confederates in Mississippi. Gholson is writing from Columbus, Mississippi, about 150 miles northeast of Jackson, which was hit by Grierson several days before this telegram. General Ruggles was in an administrative position at this time and appeared to be trying to find more troops to stop Grierson, of which Gholson had none. With the Confederate so busy looking after Grierson, it took nearly two weeks for a Confederate force to be organized to finally confront Grant, who by that point had already marched within 20 miles of the state’s capital at Jackson. Despite his actions, Gholson would be promoted to general in June. This telegram, even if it is in the hand of a telegraphic operator and not the signatory, is still an excellent reminder of a forgotten, but key, element of a major Civil War military campaign.